| | | | Thursday, May 15, 2025 | | If there's one thing that has always been true, at least in the 14 years I've been writing about Fantasy Baseball for CBSSports.com, it's this: Catcher is always the weakest position. There have been times when we've tried to convince ourselves it wasn't the case, that some youth movement was going to take the position by storm, but it never actually works out. | | But it just might be happening this time around. | | I know, I know, famous last words. But the crop of young catchers making it to the majors has been legitimately productive so far; rookie catchers have a collective 113 wRC+ so far this season, which is a remarkable metric. On this scale, where 100 is average and above 100 is above-average (naturally), the best mark for rookie catchers in the previous 25 seasons was a 97 wRC+, and the combined average is just 81. Most of the time, rookie catchers are terrible hitters. | | But that isn't the case right now. Drake Baldwin, Agustin Ramirez, and Edgar Quero have all been above-average hitters so far, Carlos Narvaez is showing some signs of life in Boston. If we zoom out a bit, you've got other young guys like Ivan Herrera and Hunter Goodman , who aren't rookies but who are enjoying breakout seasons in their first real chance to be full-time players. And that's not even mentioning more established (but still young) players like Logan O'Hoppe and Shea Langeliers who are having great seasons. | | | | And it's not counting the recently promoted Moises Ballesteros – or Dalton Rushing, who will finally make his long-overdue MLB debut this week after the Dodgers called him up Wednesday. On Wednesday, Scott White's Rankings Movers column highlighted the suddenly crowded catcher landscape , and Rushing's promotion only further complicates things. Because this is a guy with legit top-five upside at the position, a proven difference maker in the high minors with a phenomenal approach at the plate and legitimate power. But his immediate role is very much in question. | | Rushing is one of the top prospects in baseball and has played corner outfield and first base in addition to catcher, so in theory, there could be a real role with the Dodgers right away. The problem is, the Dodgers are pretty well set at first base with Freddie Freeman, while Dave Roberts has already said he doesn't anticipate Rushing playing much in the outfield this season. They want to have Rushing focus on continuing to improve behind the plate and working with pitchers, which is a problem when Will Smith is the starting catcher. There could be room for Rushing to force his way into a bigger role, but it's a narrow path – and that path might be completely blocked (absent injury) if they aren't willing to play him in the outfield. | | So, while Rushing is very much worth adding in many deeper two-catcher leagues, I'm not elevating him ahead of the likes of Ramirez or Herrera in my rankings. He'll probably slot in around Ballesteros, a similar prospect with similar playing time concerns both in the short and long term, in the lower-end No. 2 catcher range. He probably isn't worth adding in any one-catcher leagues, but he's absolutely talented enough to get there if something happens to Smith – or one of the team's other plans changes. | | Here's who else we're looking to add from Wednesday's action: | | | | Thursday's top waiver-wire options | | | | Ryan Weathers, SP, Marlins (38%) – I don't have a ton of faith in Weathers staying healthy after he suffered a flexor tendon strain this spring, but I'm pretty confident he's going to be good for as long as he holds up. Those two beliefs are linked by the velocity jump Weathers enjoyed this spring, which carried over both to his rehab assignment and his first start back Wednesday against the Cubs. That was no soft landing, but Weathers looked excellent, averaging 97.2 mph with his four-seamer and generating 10 swinging strikes on 76 pitches over five one-run innings. He struck out five, walked just one, and generally looked the part of a very good pitcher. As long as he stays on the mound, I think he will be one, and I'm looking to add Weathers anywhere I can, basically. | | Logan Henderson, SP, Brewers (28%) – Henderson might just be good. Facing a tough matchup in Cleveland, Henderson returned from Triple-A with another impressive performance. He only went five innings on 72 pitches, but he struck out seven while walking just one and allowing two runs, and his four-seamer/changeup combo worked really well, combining for 10 whiffs on the day. And, with the Brewers suddenly facing a pitching shortage – Brandon Woodruff's return from the IL was delayed in recent days, while Jose Quintana joined him on the IL with a shoulder injury – Henderson should get a chance to stick around this time. He has 16 strikeouts to just two walks in his first 11 MLB innings while allowing only three runs, and while he has relied mostly on the four-seamer and changeup so far, Henderson does also mix in a cutter and slider when needed, so this could be a deep enough arsenal if he needs it. I'm adding Henderson in any 12-team or deeper league. | | Rhys Hoskins, 1B, Phillies (58%) – Hoskins got off to a pretty slow start, with an OPS below .600 as late as April 14. But he homered in consecutive games on the 15th and 16th and hasn't really slowed down, to the point where he has an .858 OPS for the season after he went 4 for 4 with a homer and five RBI Wednesday against the Guardians. And the underlying numbers back it up suggesting Hoskins might be back to being a viable option in all Fantasy formats. | | Will Warren, SP, Yankees (32%) – Is Warren starting to figure it out? After a pretty disappointing start to the season, Warren has looked much better over the past few starts. He struck out nine in five innings against the Mariners Wednesday and now has 24 strikeouts to just five walks, with a 2.12 ERA over the past three starts. He's made some slight changes to his arsenal in that time, de-emphasizing his sinker for more four-seamers and sweepers, and that's been a pretty good decision – his sinker is generating his worst results of any pitcher in his arsenal, while his four-seamer has been pretty excellent, with a 28.3% whiff rate and .293 expected wOBA allowed entering Wednesday. Warren suddenly looks pretty interesting, at least in deeper leagues where 90-100 starters are typically rostered. | | Trevor Larnach, OF, Twins (30%) – Larnach has been a pretty streaky hitter, and he's on a hot streak right now. Since a slow start to the season, he's hitting .295 with seven homers, 15 runs, and 19 RBI over the past 23 games. Can he keep it up? Well, his plate discipline is solid enough (above-average walk rate, below-average strikeout rate), and he hits the ball fairly hard, with a 90.1 mph average exit velocity. It all looks pretty good, and he's locked in right now, so if you need some help in the outfield, he's a fine target. | | Dennis Santana, RP, Pirates (25%) – Before the Pirates fired Derek Shelton, it sure looked like the closer job was going back to David Bednar . However, since then, Santana has worked exclusively in a ninth-inning role and has two saves, while Bednar has primarily worked the eighth, including setting up both of Santana's saves. I think in the long run, Bednar will end up the closer because he's the better pitcher of the two. But right now, it looks like the ball is back in Santana's court if you need saves. | | | | Wednesday's standouts | | Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers vs. ATH: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K – Yamamoto's velocity dipped quite a bit as the start went on, to the point where he was sitting around 92-93 mph over his final three innings or so. That probably explains the hook after 88 pitches, and hopefully, there's no underlying injury to be concerned about here. As long as Yamamoto is healthy, he's an ace, but he did deal with a shoulder injury last season, so the velocity dip is notable. We'll keep an eye on this over the next few days just to be sure. | | Aaron Nola, Phillies vs. STL: 3.2 IP, 12 H, 9 ER, 1 BB, 2 K – The Cardinals are a pesky matchup these days, but it feels like Nola might struggle against basically anyone these days. That's overstating things – he had consecutive very good starts against tough Cubs and Diamondbacks lineups just a few starts ago – but Nola's 6.16 ERA and 1.51 WHIP for the season kind of speak for themselves. He's still generating plenty of strikeouts and limiting walks, but Nola is also getting absolutely hammered right now, with a .421 expected wOBA on contact coming into this start – it's almost certainly gone up after eight batted balls with an expected batting average over .500. We've gone through this before with Nola and he usually rights the ship, so I'm certainly not dropping him. But his fastball is down to 91.4 mph on average and is getting crushed, and he just might have lost enough that he can't get back to pitching at a high level this time. I'm certainly not actively trying to buy low on Nola right now. | | Sonny Gray , Cardinals @PHI: 3.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 4 K – Gray wasn't much better on the opposite side of that, so maybe there was something in the air in Philadelphia Wednesday. Gray had mostly been really solid before today, so there's less room for panic than with Nola, but it's not like everything's hunky-dory here, either – his strikeout rate entering Wednesday was down five points from last season, and his quality of contact was even worse than his already career-worst mark from 2024. This is another one where the four-seamer has lost a bit of life and is getting absolutely crushed, and I'm not sure Gray can really go away from it any more than he already is right now – his usage is down to just 18.7%, the lowest it's ever been. Throwing the sinker or cutter more might limit damage on contact, but it would probably make it even harder for Gray to rack up strikeouts, so there's a delicate balance to be struck here. I'm mostly confident Gray will remain a must-start pitcher moving forward, but this is another one where I wouldn't be actively trying to buy him, either. | | Bailey Ober , Twins @BAL: 4.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K – It feels like Ober has been a problem, but outside of a couple of starts, he really hasn't – Wednesday was his first start allowing more than one run since April 15, and his just second overall. His margin for error is probably just smaller than it is for most pitchers Still, Ober's strikeout rate remains below 20% after spending both of the previous two seasons above 25%, which heightens the risk when things go sideways for him. I think the biggest issue for Ober is his slider – it was classified as a cutter last year, but whatever you call it, it just hasn't been a particularly good pitch for him – he has a .420 expected wOBA against this season, which makes his decent whiff rate with the pitch almost irrelevant. Ober got on fine without the pitch being a big part of his arsenal before 2024, and I think he might be better off significantly curtailing that pitch's usage moving forward. The feel for the sweeper hasn't been there this season, either, which has left Ober overly reliant on a mediocre fastball and his excellent changeup. Maybe he's just a tweak or two away from figuring it out, but it's been a frustrating season for him so far. | | Luis Castillo , Mariners vs. NYY: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K – We've been forecasting doom for Castillo since the spring, but he's been more good than bad so far, with just two starts of more than three earned runs allowed. Still, Wednesday's was his first start with more than five strikeouts since April 8 and just his second overall, though there were promising signs in this one – Castillo added 0.7 mph to his fastball to get it back to where it was last season, and he generated eight swinging strikes with it, while also increasing his slider usage and getting seven more whiffs with that one. I don't know how sustainable this is, but if Castillo can sit around 95-96 instead of 94, and if he can continue to throw his slider with more drop, as he did today, maybe he can continue to outrun his decline. I'm not sure I buy it, but it's possible. | | Gavin Williams, Guardians vs. MIL: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K – Williams was solid in this one, and he continues to work his cutter in more over the past five starts. We have only seen him go more than five innings once in that span, as efficiency remains a big problem for Williams. However, he does have 33 strikeouts in 22.1 innings in that span, and if he can keep the walks to a manageable level, there's still such clear upside here. I don't have a ton of faith in him reaching it, but I have enough that I'm hanging on to Williams, despite his struggles. | | Nick Lodolo, Reds vs. CHW: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – It's been a kind of weird season for Lodolo. He's been mostly effective, but without the kind of strikeout numbers we've gotten used to from him, it's starting to catch up to him a bit. Lodolo has a 5.94 ERA and just one quality start in three May starts, though of course, his final start of April was arguably the best of his season, so there's a little bit of fun with arbitrary endpoints going on here. His curveball still isn't what it used to be, and as long as that's the case, I'm going to remain skeptical of Lodolo as a must-start Fantasy pitcher. | | Erick Fedde, Cardinals @PHI: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 3 K – Fedde has four starts out of nine with more strikeouts than walks, in case you're wondering if his 3.44 ERA is at all sustainable. I don't think it is. | | Hunter Dobbins, Red Sox @DET: 5 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 4 K – I think Dobbins is a pretty interesting talent, but obviously, this was not a good start. He's shown some upside in terms of swing-and-miss and is generating a lot of awkward swings on pitches out of the zone. But he wasn't fooling anyone in this start and overall has just 23 strikeouts in 27.2 innings. With the good control he's shown so far, that's not the worst thing in the world, but you'd still like to see Dobbins miss more bats, and I think he's capable of it. In deeper leagues, I'd rather hold Dobbins. | | Patrick Corbin, Rangers vs. COL: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 K – Long relegated to punchline status, Corbin is actually finding some success here with the Rangers, sporting a 3.35 ERA through his first seven starts. Is there anything here? I don't think so. Before Wednesday, he had 20 strikeouts in 31.2 innings, so this looks like an outlier against the most hapless lineup in baseball. I guess we have an answer to, "Can anyone dominate the Rockies away from Coors Field?" | | News and notes | | The Mariners placed Bryce Miller on the IL due to right elbow inflammation. He received a cortisone shot Tuesday and the team is optimistic that he'll be ready to return when first eligible May 27, but it's been clear all along that something wasn't right. Let's hope it's as minimal as the team thinks. | | Ronald Acuña will have his rehab assignment moved to Triple-A on Thursday. That was faster than I expected, though I don't know if it changes his timetable much – I'm still expecting a late-May return to the majors. | | Dave Roberts said Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman won't return until next week at the earliest. | | Blake Snell resumed throwing off flat ground from 60 feet on Wednesday, which is a positive update as he works his way back from a troublesome shoulder injury. | | Bruce Bochy said it's possible Corey Seager will require longer than a minimum stay on the 10-day IL, which isn't surprising given the recurring nature of the hamstring injury he's dealing with. | | Jordan Westburg suffered a setback with his hamstring and has paused his running progression. So we're probably looking at at least another couple of weeks, I would guess. | | Oneil Cruz has missed four straight due to back soreness. | | TJ Friedl was out of the lineup Wednesday with a right wrist bone bruise. He's day-to-day. | | Jose Quintana was placed on the IL with a left shoulder impingement. Tobias Myers was recalled and will start in his place on Saturday, but he doesn't have much appeal after already earning a demotion. | | Parker Meadows is close to a rehab assignment. He's missed the start of the season with a nerve issue in his right arm but is worth stashing in most category-based leagues. | | The MRI on Chris Martin's right elbow came back negative. | | The Red Sox placed Tanner Houck on the IL with a right flexor pronator strain, retroactive to Tuesday. Cooper Criswell will take Houck's spot in the rotation. | | Ben Joyce underwent surgery to repair his right shoulder and is expected to miss the rest of the season. | | Eddie Rosario signed a minor-league deal with the Brewers. | | | | | | | | PGA Championship | | 24/7 Sports News | Watch as McIlroy aims for back-to-back major championships, Scheffler tries to stay hot and the rest of an elite field competes at Quail Hollow. Watch the third and final round of the PGA Championship at 1 ET this Saturday and Sunday on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
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